Chick pea – roasted eggplant stew

I was introduced to this dish by my mother in law at Thanksgiving last year. My father in law is a vegetarian and so this was his protein dish. Right after my first bite, I had to restrain myself from digging in for more: after all, Dad could not eat the turkey (Which also was pretty amazing, but this was quite something else!).

We’ve been waiting for the eggplants this year. It’s early August and we

Mom explained she got this one from the NY Times. I usually like to tinker from recipes a lot, but this one I followed pretty closely. The few changes I did make:

I added thyme when cooking the tomato sauce. I would have added a bit of mint too, but our plant’s not doing too good right now. I feel both these herbs bring a freshness to the whole dish.

I also added oregano while cooking the tomato sauce: I felt the oregano in the sauce would complement the oregano on top.

Before roasting them, I cover the chopped eggplant pieces in water or milk for an hour or two. They’ll float up, so I weigh them down with a plate. This really helps remove the bitterness from the eggplant.

Feel free to add more than a teaspoon of honey. For my tomato sauce, I used heirloom tomatoes from the farmers market and tomatoes from our own garden: both are already very sweet. The honey we have right now is local wildflower honey – not mild at all. You see where I am going with this: don’t be shy with the honey! I added a tablespoon and a half.